get published 101 lis
TRANSCRIPT
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LiteratiNetwork
Research you can use
Get Published 101Guide to publication in the library literature
Rachel Singer Gordon Column Editor
www.emeraldinsight.com
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Preface by Rachel Singer Gordon 1
Introduction 2
Identifying and overcoming your self-imposed obstacles 3
Banishing rejection 5
Where do you get your ideas? 7
To niche or not to niche? 9
Online is fine, part I 11
Online is fine, part II 13
Time keeps on ticking 15
Selling your work, selling yourself 17
Library literature and the gift economy 19
What if? Overcoming writers remorse 20
Emerald LIS journals overview 22
Emerald Authors Charter 24
Emerald LIS titles 26
Books by Rachel Singer Gordon 26
Table of contents
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Preface
Writing for the library literature has transformed my career. And I do mean that quite literally: when I published my first short piece back
in 1997, I could never have foreseen that I'd be making a living from writing and editing just n ine short years later.
Few of you will be crazy enough to take it quite this far, but writing for publication does have the power to transform anyone's career.
Your publishing activities can help you:
Gain tenure or get promoted
Develop yourself professionally
Learn about issues of interest
Share successes with other information professionals
Share the results of your research
Expand your professional horizons
Become more attractive to potential employers
Gain name recognition
Open up additional opportunities.If you've been hesitant about taking the plunge into professional publication, wait no longer! I hope the hints and tips in this booklet
will be useful as you begin your career as a librarian author.
Rachel Singer Gordon ([email protected])
PAGE 1OCTOBER 2008 GET PUBLISHED 101: GUIDE TO PUBLICATION IN THE LIBRARY LITERATURE
Rachel Singer Gordon has written and co-authored several books for information professionals, and has been published in a
number of library-related journals. She is the founding editor of, and contributor to, the Info Career Trends electronic newsletter
(www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/index.htm).
Rachel is also Consulting Editor, Information Today, Inc., Books Division. She has been columnist for Emerald for Librarians since
September 2004.
About Emerald for Librarians
Emerald for Librarians is an online resource specifically designed for the LIS community to improve information services and better
serve library users. Visit http://info.emeraldinsight.com/librarians and become a member of Emerald for Librarians. Its free!
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Introduction
When Emerald approached me about starting a column on
writing for publication, I was instantly excited about the
opportunity. Writing for the library literature has enabled me to
connect to the profession, to colleagues around the world, and
with our ongoing professional conversation in varied and never-
anticipated ways, and I welcome the chance to share this
excitement with others.
Beginning to write for the profession can be an unfortunately (and
often unnecessarily) intimidating process. As with anything else,
though, the more we familiarize ourselves with the tools,
practices, and conventions of publishing, the more comfortable
and natural the idea of participating through publication
becomes. Through these columns, Ill begin demystifying the
publishing process, showing how to get started, how to improve
your odds of getting published, and how to interact in this new
environment.
We all have something to say
Apart from writing for the professional literature, we all benefit
from reading the professional literature and the more varied
voices that are willing to participate, the richer and more
interesting our literature becomes.
Many potential and newer librarian authors falter originally under
the belief that they have nothing new to contribute. For most of us,nothing could be further from the truth! We are all both
professionals and practitioners, and can approach our writing
from either angle. Whether you write about how you and your
library carried out a successful program, start out small by writing
book reviews or conference reports, create your own weblog,
contribute a short article to an online newsletter, or conduct and
write up the results of a lengthy methodologically-strict research
project, you are adding your voice and helping others learn from
your experiences and insights.
As professionals, we make a habit of sharing with others through
conferences, e-mail lists, workshops, or just one-on-one
conversations with colleagues. Writing for the literature is justanother way of participating that helps formalize these
discussions and make them accessible to both your current
colleagues and future researchers.
Why write?
As budgets shrink, technology changes, and demand increases
for our programs and services, we generally have no problem
keeping ourselves busy. The question then becomes: why take
time out of our busy schedules to contribute to the profession
through writing for publication?
Reasons for writing vary as much as librarians themselves. You
may be required to write for peer-reviewed journals in order to
gain tenure or promotion in your academic institution. You may
want to share the results of a successful program or service that
your library has implemented, or may be required to write these
results up as a requirement of a granting body. You may want to
enhance your rsum as you think about moving up the career
ladder; you may like to see your name in print; you may be
encouraged to publish by colleagues or administrators or you
may just enjoy the process of writing itself!
In any of these cases, your main reason for writing should be to
share your enthusiasm for the profession, connecting with
colleagues through your publishing activities. You may in time
establish yourself as an expert on a certain aspect of librarianship,
finding your own niche, or you may use your writing as an
opportunity (or excuse!) to research and to inform yourself about
a variety of subjects. Either way, you stretch yourself
professionally, keeping informed and involved.
Where to start? If you want to write, start by reading
No, Im not trying to resurrect the idea that all of us joined the
profession because we loved books, and that we somehow
spend our days poring over obscure volumes in some musty
back room. But in order to keep up with changes in our
profession and to find fodder to spark our own imaginations, we
do need to devote time each day to our professional reading. In
order to see what others have already suggested and to find gaps
where our ideas might fit, we need to make a commitment to
keeping current with the literature in our areas of interest. (This will
make you not only a better author but also a better professional!)
Your professional reading here of course ranges from association
publications, to magazines and journals in your areas of expertise
and interest, to online venues such as e-mail discussion lists,
newsletters, and blogs. Our opportunities for learning about our
profession and for expanding our own knowledge are endless,
and each of these venues also provides a potential outlet for your
own work.
As you read, let others work trigger your own ideas. Ask yourself
questions while you read: How would you respond to someone
elses article, build on the authors ideas, or spin off on a tangent?
What additional topics do you wish your favorite journal would
cover? Why has no one done a study on a recurring topic in the
library-related news? What warrants a closer look or would benefit
from an alternative viewpoint? The more you train yourself to think
about the literature as an ongoing conversation, the more clear it
becomes that everyone does have something to contribute.
Whats next?
Within this booklet, you will find more specific ways of beginning
or enhancing your library writing career, from finding an
appropriate publishing outlet, to working effectively with your
editor, to handling rejection, to just carving out the time to
research and write. Some of these areas might come more
naturally to you than others; we each have personal strengths and
sticking points.In the meantime, why not take some time over the next month to
reconnect with the professional literature and to spy out where
there just might be a place for your voice? Ill look forward to
hearing your side of the conversation!
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Identifying and overcoming your self-imposed obstacles
Before we can start writing for the profession, we first need to get
ourselves to a place where we are ready to begin. I often hear
otherwise articulate and thoughtful colleagues demur by insisting
that they have nothing to contribute to the literature, or that they
just cant write. Others, equally convinced that they cant write,
but knowing that they have to, slog through and publish only as
required for tenure. (Trust me, that always shows!)
This kind of self-deprecating attitude dumbfounds me. As
librarians, we write all the time from grant applications, to
memos, to user documentation, to conversations on
professional forums. As librarians, we are trained to research; as
librarians, we spend plenty of time thinking about and discussing
professional issues. What is it, then, about formalizing the
process through publication that intimidates so many to the point
that they decline to participate?
Wheres the block?
Many of us can blame our elders, especially our middle school
teachers or library school professors. When we contemplate
putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, we flash back toterm papers covered with red ink and last-minute all-nighters
pounding out pages on a topic not of our choosing.
Worry not: Editors just dont have red pens. They dont have the
time, and they dont have the inclination. Once you push past
this block, further, you will find that writing on a subject that truly
interests you is a night-and-day difference from writing on an
assigned topic. The more natural your topic, the less panic-
inducing the process.
Other would-be writers have more personal reasons for their
procrastination. Some may stop after their first rejection. Here,
you are only stymieing yourself maybe your work is right for
another publication, maybe it just needs a bit of polishing,maybe the editor already has a similar topic lined up. Rejection
is a natural part of the process; use it to hone your work and
improve your odds of success next time.
Others think theyre too new, too young, or too inexperienced to
have anything to contribute. Unlikely! What have you learned that
will be useful to your even-newer, even-younger, even-more-
inexperienced peers? What do you wish you knew starting out,
starting school, looking for that first job? What do you want to
learn? Why not research and write about it? Why not seek out
and publish with a more-experienced colleague? Why not look
for publications that specifically welcome new writers?
Still another group of would-be writers argues that theyre too
busy with their day-to-day duties to put the time into writing for
publication. This, I do sympathize with, but why use it as an
excuse to avoid writing altogether? Look for simpler, shorter
options write a conference report, a short informal article for
your local association newsletter, or a first-person account of
your experiences for an online publication. Straightforward
projects that take little time to complete can build your writing
portfolio and confidence.
Start slow, move easilyYou have to begin somewhere. Realize first that publishing is a
two-way street: while you depend on editors to publish your
work, they rely on writers to fill their pages. When I surveyed
published librarians, a number mentioned that their first
published piece was solicited by an editor who heard them
speak, saw a thoughtful post they made to an e-mail list, or had
a conversation with them at a conference. Editors wouldnt be
out there actively soliciting articles if they werent interested in
finding and nurturing new talent.
As an editor of an online library-related publication, I find that
locating writers for a given issue is sometimes like pulling teeth.
I often talk to other editors or read their comments about thedifficulty in finding contributors willing to share their opinions,
even on topics that seem as if they would be of interest to many
librarians. Between publications actively seeking authors and the
tendency of librarian authors to focus on big name journals and
publishing houses, opportunities abound for writers willing to
take advantage of smaller or less-well-known publishing outlets.
Your job, then, is simply to find editors who want your work. Think
realistically here. If youre just starting out, or if your confidence
is shaky, why not contact publications that publish work from
others just like you. Dont start with The Journal of Academic
Librarianship; start with Info Career Trends (www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/) or LISCareer.comDo it anyway
Trust me: If you can speak, you can write. If you can think about
our profession, if you can set up programs and services in your
institution, if you can discuss solutions and ideas and problems
and issues with your colleagues you can write!
The more you write, the more you will develop the self-
confidence to continue. Aim for that first published work and
move on from there. Take the time you spend thinking of excuses
for not writing, and put that time and energy into your work.
If you are interested in being published, yet feel too unready to
show your writing to others, then start out with prep work. Beginresearching a topic of interest. Start a clippings file, start
bookmarking web sites, start e-mailing yourself articles. Do your
daily professional reading and think about which publications
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match your comfort level in tone, subject, and style. Bounce
ideas off colleagues, whether online or in person. Sign up for
library writing-related e-mail lists and blogs such as:
Beyond the Job: http://librarycareers.blogspot.comA Library Writers Blog: http://librarywriting.blogspot.comNMRTWriter e-mail list:
www.ala.org/ala/nmrt/comm/nmrtwriter.htmRead some books that encourage new librarian authors, starting
with:
Crawford, Walt (2003), First Have Something to Say: Writing for
the Library Profession, ALA Editions, Chicago, IL.
Gordon, Rachel Singer (2004), The Librarians Guide to Writing forPublication, Scarecrow Press, Lanham, MD.
The more reading, research, and thinking you do, the more you
will get in the writing mindset and you may even find yourself
anxious to begin! Give your enthusiasm a chance to shine, and
be willing to take the plunge when you are ready.
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Banishing rejection
While there is of course never a guarantee of publication
success, we can easily scare off some of the most common
reasons why our work is rejected.
First, lets look at the typical reasons why editors at library-related
publishing outlets reject any authors work:
(1) The work is not appropriate for the particular publication or
publisher.
(2) A failure to put the necessary effort into a query or draft.
(3) A lack of willingness to start small.
(4) An unwillingness to rewrite or rework an article or topic.
(5) The work does not offer anything new on the subject.
(6) The publisher has something already scheduled on a similar
topic.
There are other minor reasons perhaps the editor is having a
bad day; she has personal issues with you or your work; he just
isnt interested in your topic. The six above, however, encompass
the most common reasons for rejection. If we examine theseclosely, we find something interesting: in all but the last case, we
as writers have control over the outcome.
How heartening! If we have control over the outcome, there are
some simple steps we can take to minimize the chance of
rejection and increase the odds that our work sees the light of
publication. Lets take these one by one, and see how we can
conquer each.
The work is not appropriate for the particular publication
or publisher
This is the biggest reason for rejection, and the one which is
most easily remedied. You are an information professional: doyour research ahead of time. Familiarize yourself with a
publication or publishing house before you submit your work, by
reading the journal or by reading several books from that
publisher. Read their author guidelines (which are usually
available online); these provide direction on the type of work the
publisher looks for. Think about their typical topics, tone, style,
and audience, and take the time to target your work.
Information Today, Inc.s Editor-in-Chief, John Bryans, notes:
This might seem rather obvious, but if I had a penny for every
hopeful childrens book author who approached me over the
years (without considering the fact that I have never, ever
published a childrens book) I wouldnt be worrying about my
retirement plan today. He echoes a common complaint of
editors who see inappropriate submission after inappropriate
submission.
Submitting work appropriate to a given publishing outlet is the
biggest and simplest step you can take towards publishing
success.
A failure to put the necessary effort into a query or draft
Sometimes we get so excited about our topic and the prospect
of seeing it in print that we dash off a query, article, or proposal
and send it out without taking the time to let it sit, edit our work,
or think about the best way to make our case. Theres nothing
wrong with excitement! But a sloppy query or sloppy draft easily
convinces a publisher that we will also fail to put our best effort
into the finished product.
The same applies to writing that lacks focus or clarity, to
academic work that fails to explain its methodology, and to any
work that fails to follow guidelines. Take the time to proof-read.
Take the time to spell-check. Take the time to show your work to
a trusted friend or colleague who will read it with a critical eye
and suggest ways to make it stronger. Never expect your topic to
sell itself without your help; show editors from the outset why
they should publish your work.
A lack of willingness to start small
I have talked in a previous column about places where librarian
authors can start small and build up their writing muscles,
rsum, and confidence before tackling larger or more
prestigious publications. Those of us facing tenure pressure,
those of us who are ambitious, or those of us who are only aware
of big-name publishing outlets sometimes forget this advice
and get overly discouraged by rejections from prestigious
publications. Prestigious journals earn their prestige partially by
a rigorous acceptance process. Big-name journals often have
correspondingly low acceptance rates precisely becauseeveryone has heard of them: they receive, and therefore must
reject, a larger number of articles.
If you cultivate an awareness of the wonderful variety of
publication outlets in our field, though, you improve your odds of
success by your willingness to branch out beyond the well-
known. Once you have built a record of successful publication
and a comfort with writing for the profession, you will be readier
to tackle bigger projects and bigger-name outlets. Think of this in
the same way as you think of building your career in general;
entry-level positions have a lot to teach you, although they may
not be where you choose to spend your entire career.
An unwillingness to rewrite or rework an article or topic
This is not, strictly speaking, rejection. Often we get so wrapped
up in our writing that we tend to see any suggestions or requests
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for modifications as a personal insult. Especially at peer-
reviewed publications, though, nearly every article that eventually
appears in a journal undergoes a process of reviewing, rewriting,
and revision. If an editor kicks an article back to you with aninvitation to revise it, it means that he has an interest in
publishing the revised version. He is not likely to waste his time
asking to see a rewritten article with no intention of using it. If an
editor kicks a book proposal back to you with suggestions on re-
focusing your topic or modifying your approach, it means she is
seriously considering publishing the re-focused final work.
Remember that editors have experience with the types of
material that succeed with their audience. Review boards exist,
not just to approve or reject material, but to make expert
suggestions on improving and strengthening a journals content.
Editors serve a function as gatekeepers, and must take that role
seriously in offering suggestions and improvements to the work
that they publish. If you take their criticism and suggestions
personally, your publishing career will be short-lived.
The work does not offer anything new on the subject
This complaint is especially common among those who publish
peer-reviewed or more academic work. Your responsibility as a
librarian author is to make a unique contribution to the literature,
not simply to rehash what has already been said on a topic
without adding fresh data, a unique perspective, or a different
conclusion. This is one main difference between writing for
professional publication and the writing you might have been
used to doing in school, for example. Even a literature review
needs to be evaluative; let your thoughts about the topic shine
through.
The wish for work that says something new is often explicitly
stated in publishers guidelines, and for good reason. Readersexpect to be enlightened, informed, and even provoked by the
professional literature work that simply rehashes old
conversations is unlikely to do so.
The publisher has something already scheduled on a
similar topic
Over this we have no control. We cannot read editors minds or
foresee what other authors might have turned in. We can,
however, see what publishers have already published on a topic,
and avoid duplicating previous work. We can also put aside our
suspicions: editors are extremely unlikely to steal your ideas
and assign them to another writer. When people think and talkand read about issues important to our profession, some
inevitably arrive at similar conclusions and have similar
comments. Editors who made a habit of taking others ideas
would not stay in business long were a tightly-knit profession,
and we talk!
Any actions we can take to decrease our chances of rejection
only make our work stronger and our writing more likely to find an
audience. Realizing the real control we have over our works
acceptance helps us feel more secure in our library publishing
careers, and lets us put aside our fear of rejection to concentrate
on the writing itself.
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Where do you get your ideas?
The question of where successful writers get their ideas is nearly
as old as the first written texts. We all wish we had a glimpse into
some magic crystal ball that could tell us which topics will be
winners and which might fall flat. Truth be told, though, no one
has a crystal ball not me, not you, not Stephen King; not Will
Manley nor Marylaine Block nor any other prolific librarian author.
Fed up with this unanswerable query, speculative fiction writerHarlan Ellison even started telling aspiring writers that he
subscribes to an idea store in Schenectady, which for a low fee
sends him a new packet each month. Unfortunately, that doesnt
always put an end to the question he notes that some people
then ask him for the address of the service!
If only life were that simple. Those of us who are newer to writing
or newer to the profession may be used to having had all our
topics handed to us, from grad school papers to grant
applications. In real life, though, we generally have the
responsibility for coming up with our own ideas, just as we are
responsible for our own career paths. Barring the occasional
lucky accident or actively-solicited paper, we need to pulltogether our own ideas from our reading, our professional
conversations, our work experiences, and our cogitations about
the profession.
There are, however, several ways in which you can help ideas
flow more naturally and spur your own inspiration. First, and I
know I have said this before, but it bears repeating:
Stay circumscribed
Beginning librarian authors can start by writing resource reviews
and conference reports, which offer a more circumscribed way
to begin. Even these, though, benefit from your ability to draw on
your experience and your other reading: a good book reviewdraws on your knowledge of the topic and previous reading on
the subject; a good conference report builds on your ability to
compare the workshops you attend with previous meetings and
on your knowledge of the subjects discussed.
If just finding an initial topic, though, is what has you stumped,
these defined assignments can help you build your confidence
as a writer so you can later move on to articles of your own. You
can also stay circumscribed in other ways. Think about starting
your writing career by making contacts within your own circle of
colleagues or coworkers. Think about your fellow librarians as
potential co-authors; take the time to bounce ideas off one
another.
As you go on, articles and longer projects grow most easily when
you take the time to:
Stay professionally active
In order to make original contributions to the library literature, we
need first to become full participants in the profession. Our ideas
evolve best in conversation with others, and our efforts to keep
current can spur our own thoughts. The old adage to write what
you know, while unnecessarily restrictive when taken to
extremes, does have a grain of truth. What we know what welearn from our professional activities informs both our writing
and our thoughts about the profession in general.
Where we often fall short is in the assumption that there is one
right, and costly, way to remain professionally engaged, when in
fact information professionals today have multiple ways to
remain professionally involved. These can be as simple as
joining e-mail lists or taking workshops in your area of interest,
forming a book discussion group with colleagues, creating a
blog or other online resource, or volunteering for a local or state
committee. Especially if you are in a smaller or less well-funded
institution, be creative with your professional activities. Each of
these offers new fodder for your professional writing. You can
mine all of your professional interactions for ideas, from
conversations with colleagues, to projects you carry out in your
own institution, to workshops you attend.
Trust in the power of serendipity, and remain open to ideas
everywhere. In my own professional life, I often find ideas that
turn into successful projects while engaged in other endeavors.
The idea for my first book, for example, grew out of my own
experiences as a newer reference librarian trying to put together
public internet classes in the late 1990s. At the time, there were
few materials available on the subject. I thought: Someone
should write a book! and screwed up the courage to send in a
proposal. A year and a half later, ALA Editions published
Teaching the Internet In Libraries.
A couple of years later, I had moved up from beginning reference
librarian to computer services department head. I found myself
managing a network, maintaining a web site, providing tech
support, and doing computer repair all without formal technical
training. I happened to be thinking about my position as a lucky
accident and wondering how many others were in the same
boat; while reading Computers in Libraries one day, I saw a call
for contributors, and sent in a proposal. This turned into the 2001
article A course in accidental systems librarianship which later
expanded into the 2003 Information Today book The Accidental
Systems Librarian.
In 2003, I was weeding one day and slogging through cases of
general books aimed at beginning writers. This made me wonder
whether there were any books aimed at beginning author-
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librarians. I took a look, and found nothing recent a niche just
begging to be filled. In 2004, Scarecrow published The
Librarians Guide to Writing for Publication.
As I continue on my professional path as a librarian and continue
to write about professional issues, the more I see the need to:
Stay the course
The more time you spend reading, thinking about the issues, and
interacting within the library profession, the more you will find that
ideas begin to flow naturally. The more time you spend writing
about library-related topics, the more often you will find that your
own writing and reading and experiences spark new ideas.
As in all other aspects of our careers as informationprofessionals, our confidence and knowledge base as writers
build on all our previous experiences. If you remain open to the
possibilities, you will find that you start facing the opposite
problem of too many ideas, too little time.
See you in Schenectady!
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To niche or not to niche?
As you progress in your library publishing career, you will need to
decide whether to carve yourself out a particular niche or to
diversify your writing and research interests. Some who write
more than two or three articles on a given subject will find that
they are quickly pigeon-holed, so make this decision before it is
made for you!
The right decision for you will depend on a number of factors,
and your focus may shift over the course of a lengthy publishing
career. Following, though, find some discussion of the pros and
cons of each approach that will help you make an informed
beginning in library publication.
Specialization: pros and cons
There are a number of pluses to becoming a specialist, and
academic librarians in the throes of the tenure process may feel
a particular pressure to specialize. Publication requirements can
inspire academics to research various aspects of one larger
topic, allowing them to publish a number of related articles more
quickly and efficiently and providing fodder for a tenure or
promotion folder. Those who decide to pursue the PhD will alsofind a pressure toward specialization, and will likely begin by
publishing shorter material that builds up to their larger
dissertation topic.
Non-academics, though, can also consider focusing their work
and developing their expertise in a particular area. Writing
extensively on a topic builds your reputation as an expert on that
subject. This can parlay into speaking invitations, monthly
columns, or solicitations to write a book dropping additional
professional development and exposure opportunities in your
lap.
You can use and reuse the research you have done on your area
of specialization, never having to start from scratch. Your in-depth reading and research allow you to understand your
subject more fully and help you build your confidence as a writer:
you own your topic. Exploring different areas of a subject can be
rewarding and, the more you learn, the more in-depth you will be
able to go. You can write about how your topic changes over
time, about how changes in the profession affect your thinking,
about how another writers views have affected your own, about
various aspects of a broader issue.
Those who think they may eventually wish to diversify their writing
into other areas may reconsider excessive specialization,
though, as they run several risks. First, readers and editors may
identify them with their previous writing and feel leery of inviting
them to contribute on another subject. This may fit your needs
now, but if you in the future wish to branch out, you may be
distressed to find yourself pigeon-holed.
Second, limiting your writing to a single area can in time
undermine your own confidence in your ability to branch out.
Building a niche equates to creating your own comfort zone, and
we all have difficulty moving outside our comfort zones. Trends
and topics come and go, in the library world as everywhere else.
If you specialize in a disappearing trend, you will need to make
the transition to other topics, or cut short your writing career.
Steven Bell, Director, Paul J. Gutman Library at Philadelphia
University , mentions a colleague who wrote extensively on
training patrons to use CD-ROMs in libraries, only to disappear
from sight with the emergence of the web. As he notes: I think
this points to the weakness (danger?) of specializing. You may
have a great niche, but in our field the technology and issues
change so rapidly that you may find that suddenly your niche is
no longer relevant. Know the difference between specialization
and getting stuck in a rut.
Lastly, your reputation as an expert in a particular field comes
with the responsibility to protect that reputation. If you misstep,
misspeak, or miss an opportunity, your errors will seem all the
more glaring owing to your expert standing.
Diversification: pros and cons
When you diversify your writing and research interests, you are
never likely to become bored; you can always pick a different
direction, or work on a different article or topic for a while.
Focusing on breadth as opposed to depth gives you an excuse
to read extensively in the profession and to keep up with the
multiple issues affecting librarianship as a whole: you never
know where your next idea might come from.
As information specialists, we know the value of lifelong learning
and continuing to assimilate bits of information; these come in
handy in unexpected ways as we carry on with our day-to-day
duties. As a generalist, these bits of information you pick up
during your varied writing and research projects can come in
handy while you write on various topics.
Working on various projects and topics allows us to develop
ourselves professionally in various ways. Steven Bell shares: I
also find it a better learning and personal professional
development experience to explore a variety of topics, because,
as I research and write about each, thats how I learn about them
and develop expertise. So I find that I end up having a more well-
rounded professional experience by moving to new topics on a
regular basis. Researching, writing, and thinking about various
aspects of our diverse profession keeps us connected with new
developments, and informed on topics that affect our individual
work and our field as a whole.
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When we diversify, though, we run the risk of researching a given
topic less thoroughly in cases where our minds have already
moved on to the next project or subject. Librarian authors are as
susceptible as anyone else to the grass is greener syndrome.When we are bogged down on one project, the next can beckon
seductively, urging us to abandon our current work and move on
to a seemingly more stimulating topic.
Diversifying our writing can also be exhausting. When you always
write on something new, you never have the familiar comfort of
building on a base of expertise. Be sure to schedule yourself
down-time between projects in order to renew your interest in
professional writing, and allow your mind to relax before picking
up something new.
The best of both worlds
Many librarian writers carve out a middle ground, specializing in
a very broad area that still allows them to draw on multiple topics
and trends. Others take the time during their writing careers to
become serial specialists in a number of different areas, moving
among them as circumstances and the needs of the library
literature change. You can delve in depth into a topic for a year
or two, then move on to new interests and ideas.
Another approach is to choose several different areas in which to
specialize, becoming known as an expert on multiple topics.
Eastern Illinois University Librarian and Assistant Professor Sarah
Johnson, who writes on topics ranging from professionaldevelopment to historical fiction, explains: I like the idea of
specializing in a bunch of diverse areas that way theres plenty
to write about.
You can also use your specific interests to branch out by offering
your expertise in collaboration with others with related but
different interests. University of Connecticut Reference Librarian
& Liaison to Sociology Tiffani R. Conner says: My greatest hope,
truly, is to be able to collaborate with others who have
specializations themselves (or maybe just educated interests),
so that we can collectively create great articles and
contributions. Move slightly out of your comfort zone, see how it
feels, and work with others to extend your own expertise andpublishing efforts.
Take some time to think about where you want to take your
writing career, and about what feels most natural to you. Your
decision depends on factors as varied as your current position,
your interests, and what you want to get out of your writing and
research. Opportunities await in any event; remain flexible
enough to take advantage!
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Online is fine, part I
When we think about writing for professional publication, many of
us tend first to gravitate toward the familiar: big-name
publications, popular print outlets, the journals that we read and
discussed in library school and that we read and pass around
our workplaces.
As you progress in your writing and professional reading,
though, you will find that many of the exciting innovations, must-read publications, and informal yet influential outlets have moved
online. The following sections cover some of the reasons to write
for and ways to locate online publications; next months column
will address self-publishing online.
Online advantages
The biggest advantage to many librarian writers in publishing
online is that of timeliness. An article submitted to a traditional
peer-reviewed journal may take a year or more to appear in print;
peer-reviewed online publications tend to shorten that timeframe,
while non-peer reviewed online outlets sometimes publish your
work only weeks after you submit it.
Publishing on the open web also exponentially increases your
potential audience. When talking about the impact of online
publishing on tenure decisions, Marylaine Block puts it simply:
We should consider the question of readership as well. The fact
is, any journal article in even an esteemed scholarly journal will
be read by a minute fraction of scholars in the field, and virtually
not at all by students, hobbyists, and those who simply want to
explore the subject. The very same article, if its placed on the
public web and earns a high ranking, may be read by thousands,
or even hundreds of thousands, of people, which can improve
the general publics understanding of a topic or an academic
discipline (http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib159.html).
Think about how you came to read this online-only column.
Perhaps a colleague e-mailed you a link, maybe you subscribe
to Emerald for Librarians e-mail newsletter, you may have signed
up with a web page monitoring service that notifies you when
new articles are posted, you could easily have found it through a
Google search, or it is possible you saw it listed on someones
blog. The ease of locating and sharing online material translates
into an inherently larger readership.
Librarians and information professionals often think about
marketing our institutions and our profession long before we
think about marketing ourselves as professionals. Our careers,
though, need just as much nurturing as our libraries and
publishing online is one fantastic and simple method of self-
marketing. Online publishing in open-access journals creates
name recognition more quickly than publishing only in print, and
gives you freely accessible examples to which to point when you
are marketing yourself and your work in the future.
Publishing online
Writing for the online environment can be as simple as publishing
in a freely-accessible, informal e-journal or zine, or as complex
as going through the traditional peer-review process with a
refereed online publication. Your target outlets will varydepending on your goals. If you want to be published in an
online journal, think about the ones you yourself read, do a
search on your area of interest, or see if familiar print publications
have an online counterpart.
As with print publishing, focus on what you need to accomplish.
Do you need to write for peer-reviewed journals during a tenure
or promotion process? Find out how your institution views online
publishing, both formally and informally (ask around!). Ask
colleagues for their favorites, or explore journals like First Monday
(www.firstmonday.org) or LIBRES (http://libres.curtin.edu.au). Do
you just want to share a particular experience or viewpoint? Look
into relevant newsletters or zines like Lisjobs.coms Info CareerTrends (www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/); think about their target
readership and whether it matches your topic. Are you a student?
See whether your library school or student organization sponsors
an online publication like the McGill Library and Information
Studies Student Associations Marginal Librarian (www.gslis.
mcgill.ca/marginal/).
Think also about publishing in print journals that provide part or
all of their content online. Even a freely accessible table of
contents and abstracts can provide an impetus for site visitors to
look up the full text of your work. Look at what different publishers
are doing in this area: see for example tables of contents and
selected articles from any of Information Todays periodicals atwww.infotoday.com/periodicals.shtml while Library Journal
currently makes its articles available at www.libraryjournal.com
Online inevitability
More publishing outlets than ever have embraced the inevitability
of online publication, either in whole or in part. A number make
selected articles available online; others allow authors to post
final edited versions on their personal web sites some months
after their first appearance in print. For an example, see the
Computers In Libraries author FAQ at www.infotoday.com/
cilmag/faq.shtml, which notes that authors can post the final
version of their articles online as long as they include CILs legal
permission statement.
Newer journals assume the importance of an online presence
from the outset. As Richard Naylor, editor of the Journal of the
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Library Administration & Management Section (JLAMS) of the
New York Library Association (www.nyla.org/index.php?page_
id=813), notes: An electronic format has several related
advantages for us. While the most obvious advantage is cost, itis also important that we are able to reach all our library
association members without first selling them on the advantage
of paying. And, since our goal is not to raise money but to
provide additional services to our members and to further the
professional goals of librarianship, the more people who read the
journal, the better.
Some editors see personal professional benefits as well. Priscilla
Shontz, webmaster of LISCareer.com and editor of The
Librarians Career Guidebook, started LISCareer as an outgrowth
of her first book. She says: The site offers me the opportunity to
contribute to the profession both by publishing articles that share
practical advice with new and future librarians and by offering
other librarians a publication opportunity. Ive also been able to
widen my professional network as more people find the site.
As you build your writing career, think about how publishing
online can interact with your offline publishing activities, helping
you build your portfolio and your name recognition. Keep an
open mind, and always be on the look-out for new opportunities.
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Online is fine, part II
The previous column talked about the ins, outs, and advantages
of writing for online journals and other internet publications. Now,
lets move on to discussing some of the various ways to self-
publish online.
Automated tools and graphical editors have lowered the barrier
of entry to the point where any self-motivated librarian can self-
publish on the internet. Want a blog? Go to Blogger.com or
Livejournal.com, register for an account, and have your own
within a couple of hours. Want a web site? Contact your ISP,
Geocities.com, or one of thousands of low-cost hosts; use
automated site-builder tools, or invest in a copy of Microsoft
FrontPage. More advanced? Use your own favorite tools and
services!
If youre not yet familiar with weblogs, or blogs, these are web
sites showing brief, reverse-chronological postings or musings
from the sites author. Content can range from a personal diary,
to commentary on new stories, to full-length articles and
discussions. Weblog software and hosting services allow you to
use graphical editors to format and publish your posts to your
personal blog without needing to know HTML. (For examples oflibrary-related weblogs, see http://librarian.net or www.lisnews.
com) Interested parties can subscribe to your blog to
automatically receive your newest postings as you publish them.
(For an easy way to get started subscribing to several
representative library blogs so that you can see what the fuss is
about, visit http://joy.mollprojects.com/blog/projects/quickrss.
html)
Blogs and other forms of online self-publication can range from
the utterly personal to the impersonally professional; those who
land closer to the professional end of the spectrum are those
most likely to interact fruitfully with your other publishing activities
and help build your library writing career.
Online advantages
Publishing in online professional journals can let your work
appear in a more timely fashion. You can also, of course, publish
anything on your own web site or blog the instant you finish
writing it and can start collecting comments and criticism the
instant you finish posting it. If you have opinions on a current
news story or professional discussion, posting them online
allows you to contribute your thoughts while the issue is hot. If
you have ideas you want to work out before committing to more
formal publication, posting online can help you organize your
ideas while simultaneously collecting feedback from others.
Self-publishing online can extend your online reputation beyond
the presence you establish in the online professional media. If
you create a resource of use to other information professionals,
or if you build up a reputation as someone with thoughtful
comments and insights about professional issues, you will start
attracting a regular audience to your personal online presence.
Your online writing will be searchable and accessible; you can
easily add a link to your rsum, to your e-mail signature file, to
directories of library-related resources.
Online pitfallsThose who self-publish online do bypass the traditional function
of editors and review panels as gatekeepers, and in most cases
need to consider ways to duplicate that function by creating their
own circle of trusted critics. Be even more careful than when
submitting your work to journals to take the time to read your
writing over, or have someone else read it over, and determine
that it says what you actually want to say before you put it up
on the internet for the world to see.
The temptation to throw your work online without thinking it
through leads some to speak quite dismissively of the potential
of these selfpublishing venues. Michael Gorman, for one,
writes: Unfortunately, if there are writers of genius, or talent, oreven basic competence out there blogging, I have yet to find
them. In the early heady days of the internet, we were promised
that, in the future, everyone could be published. Alas, that
promise is being fulfilled, which should remind us all to be wary
of what we wish for (Our Own Selves: More Meditations for
Librarians, ALA, Chicago, 2005, p. 208).
Most commentators are not quite as provocatively dismissive,
but the ease of online publishing does underscore the effort
needed to make our online activities useful. Post when you have
something to say, rather than for the sake of posting. Blog posts
in particular are not necessarily intended to be polished and
precise; their very roughness underscores the immediacy and
enthusiasm of bloggers commentary. On a professional blog,
though, they are expected to be relevant, coherent, and
readable.
Online experimentation
Librarian and technology trainer Michael Stephens explains how
his blog, Tame the Web (www.tametheweb.com/ttwblog/), helps
him work out ideas that may later appear more formally in print:
I believe I have a definite voice in my blog that is well-suited to
the medium, but would not translate to the literature well at all. A
few blog entries have seeded articles for sure. I try concepts and
thoughts on for size in my blog, and Im pleased if an idea for an
article appears there. Library Stuffs (www.librarystuff.net)Steven M. Cohen concurs: Some of the content that I put on my
weblog can be seen as a testing ground for more formal writing.
Having readers comment on my posts also helps in forming
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theories that can go into future columns. In fact, I count on those
comments, which is something that is lacking in the professional
literature, at least in real-time.
Blogs offer a built-in mechanism for organizing and preservingyour thoughts on a subject; their commenting function and e-
mail links allow easy input from your colleagues. Newer ideas
include using a personal wiki to brainstorm and organize your
ideas; think about what format better matches the way you think
and inherently self-organize. (Wikis are basically open-editing
systems that allow any user or any authorized user to edit and
create any of an interrelated collection of web pages. Check out
SeedWiki at www.seedwiki.com or Jotspot at /www.jot.com) If
you are collaborating on a writing project with another librarian,
either blogs or wikis can be an interesting way of collecting your
contributions, organizing your thoughts, editing your work, and
commenting on one anothers ideas.
When blogs make it even to Time Magazine (www.time.com/time/
personoftheyear/2004/poymoments.html), we need to pay
attention. Adding our voices as librarians to the larger blogger
and other online communities is one way to remain relevant
online participants as we work on transforming our profession in
the internet age.
If you do decide to publish a library or information-related blog or
web site as a counterpart to other professional writing, keep
these simple guidelines in mind: keep it useful, keep it topical,
and keep it professional. Look at what else is out there, and think
about where you might fill a niche. Think about your overall
research and writing interests and how these can intersect with
your online activities. Before establishing your own site or blog,think about how often you can commit to updating it and whether
you have the self-motivation to continue writing after the initial
creative rush.
Once you have committed to creating your own self-publishing
venue, dont forget the most important rule enjoy exploring the
various connections and professional advantages it offers!
For further reference
Block, Marylaine (2002), Web contributions and tenure
decisions, Ex Libris 159 (November 14), available at: http://
marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib159.html
Levine, Jenny (2002), Blogging and the shifted librarian, InfoCareer Trends, July, available at: www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/
archives/jul02jlevine.htm
Mortensen, Torrill and Walker, Jill (2002), Blogging thoughts:
personal publication as an online research tool, available at:
www.intermedia.uio.no/konferanser/skikt-02/docs/Researching
_ICTs_in_context-Ch11-Mortensen-Walker.pdf
Tonkin, Emma (2005), Making the case for a wiki, Ariadne 42
(January), available at: www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/tonkin/
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Time keeps on ticking ...
Busy librarians often complain that they lack the time to devote
to building a publishing career. The very thought of producing
lengthy peer-reviewed articles, reading books in time to write
reviews on deadline, creating and conducting valid research
studies, or investing the time in finishing a book-length
manuscript gives them nightmares. In other cases, a bad first
project that took over their lives for a time makes them reluctant
to repeat the experience.
Do I ever sympathize!
All evidence to the contrary, though, most librarian writers do
indeed lead busy lives outside their prose, taking the time to hold
down day jobs, raise children, pursue hobbies, eat dinner, and
maybe even read a book or two every once in a while. So, where
do successful writers find the time, and how do they achieve
balance? The suggestions below will be most applicable to those
who want to make writing for the profession a regular part of their
careers; if you are a tenure-track librarian just looking to publish
a couple of articles, or simply interested in contributing
occasionally as the muse or mood strikes, then you will want toscale down this approach to match your needs.
Get consistent
Julia Cameron offers the concept of morning pages, where you
get up each morning and write at least three longhand, free-
flowing pages on any topic, without judging or editing or
criticizing your own work. While this often works well as an
unblocking technique for fiction writers, something similar,
whether you call it morning pages or freewriting, can work for
you, too.
Your writing muscles get out of shape just like any others, and
the best way to ensure that you are able to write consistently andreasonably quickly is to... well... keep writing consistently and
reasonably quickly. Write something every single day. It doesnt
all have to be publication quality, it doesnt even have to be
library-related but it does have to be down on paper or on
screen.
This is one good use for a blog or other self-publishing venture
(see last months column), although do beware of letting your
work out online in too rough a form. You can also write longhand
or on your own PC for personal consumption and never let your
scratchwork see the light of day. You may be surprised, though,
at how many ideas find eventual fruition or by how many
thoughts you manage to work out, just by consistently writing
them down. You will also be surprised by how pleasantly your
work can flow when you make it part of your everyday life rather
than consistently procrastinating until deadline.
In a recent interview, Walt Crawford estimates he writes about
250,000 words a year (www.ybp.com/ybp/DomIndex.html?cites
_interview.html&). Yes, that is a heck of a lot of words. But lets
stop and think about this for a minute. One double-spaced typed
page is about 250 words. If you wrote just one double-spaced
typed page every single day for one year, youd have 91,250
words! If you got ambitious and wrote two pages a day, you
could take some time out for spring break, having the flu, takingSaturdays off, or just plain old mental recovery time and still
end up having written comfortably over 100,000 words.
If numerical goals make you uncomfortable, try setting aside
specific blocks of time instead. Do you have half an hour free
each morning? An hour at night before going to bed? An hour
when the kids are napping or when Sesame Streetis on? Call this
block your writing time, turn down the ringer on the phone, make
it clear what constitutes an emergency where people can bother
you (house on fire) and what does not (cant find the grape
juice).
Of course, most of these daily words may not be publishable intheir original form. But, how many usable articles could you distil
out of this work? How many of these pages might turn into ideas
that later see the light of day, even if the original iteration
justifiably disappears forever? Try devoting half your time to
writing and half to editing and organizing your existing content,
or half to writing and half to researching and collecting ideas.
Find the balance that works best for you.
Get organized
One problem we have in maximizing our time comes when we
fail to organize the work that underlies our writing. As librarians,
we recognize the importance of organization, of being able to
find a given item or piece of information when needed. Apply thisprinciple to your own work; it deserves it!
Julie Hoods Files, piles, and stacks ... get organized for 2005
(www.writersweekly.com/this_weeks_article/002316_01052005.h
tml) gives some suggestions for organizing ongoing writing
projects that will be especially useful to anyone working on more
than one project at a time. Use, though, any system that works
for you and enables you to put your finger quickly on a needed
piece of information, or to recall items you have read or skimmed
and wanted to keep for future reference. The main point of
organizing is to reduce the time you spend finding the content
you need to do your work, and increase the time you have to
spend actually writing.
Think also of your everyday efforts to keep current as research.
Clip articles for future reference, bookmark web sites and blog
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entries, and use your super-secret librarian skills to organize
these in a manner that will let you recall them when needed.
Get going!
Youve written, youve organized now, how to turn this flow of
productivity into publishable work? After taking a month or two to
simply write, the first skill you will need to develop is the ability to
let go. Look at your piles of papers and pages and words. Some
will be duplicative of each other, of something you just read in
the literature. Some will be confusing what were you thinking
when you wrote that? Some will have seemed important at the
time, but now not necessarily worth the effort to pursue.
Pull out the parts that still interest you, that contain the germ of
an idea, or that, in wonderful but rarer cases, contain the bones
of a fully-fledged article or book proposal. Now you have the
genesis for creating publishable work; you have ideas writtendown that you can expand upon, combine, and otherwise use. It
is always more difficult to start from scratch than to take the
usable sentences, paragraphs, or even fragments from your
previous writing and expand them into a complete work.
Consciously perpetuate this writing cycle, and you will be able to
make the most of the time you have available and should never
run out of ideas!
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Selling your work, selling yourself
In order to be published in the professional literature, you need
to develop the ability to sell your ideas to editors. Thinking in
terms of selling, especially if you are writing for peer-reviewed
publications, can seem strange particularly given that
marketing is not always among our strengths as librarians.
The reality, though, is that you are selling yourself and your ideas
whenever you put your ideas or your work out there. Your ultimategoal is to convince an editor that your work is appropriate for him
to publish; you do so by marketing yourself. You can think of
effective marketing as a variation on the old who, what, when,
where, why, and how series of questions:
Who are you? Show that you are the right person to write the
article, book, or other work.
What is the work about? Be able to explain it succinctly yet
accurately.
When should the work appear; is it topical now; will it be topical
by the time it appears in print?
Where is the best place for this work to appear; can you pictureit in this journal or among this publishers offerings?
Why should an editor publish it?
How is it appropriate for the readers of this journal or target
audience of this publisher?
Before you can even think about selling your idea or your work to
an editor, you need to be able to sell it to yourself. Devote time to
thinking and talking about your topic, bounce ideas off
colleagues, and take the time you need to clarify your thoughts.
If you are unable to summarize the subject of your book or article
or work in a couple of sentences when talking to a colleague, you
probably lack the focus to sell it to an editor.Effective query letters
When you write for non-peer-reviewed publications, you will often
be asked to submit a query letter describing the topic, focus, and
content of your proposed article before actually sitting down to
write the piece. This saves you from taking the time to complete
a whole article and then finding out that it is inappropriate for, or
unwanted by, a given publication.
Whenever I put out a call for queries for my electronic newsletter,
I receive incomplete, oddly formatted, and inappropriate
submissions. Although potential contributors are enthusiastic, I
often cannot tell from their messages what they want to write
about or why they might be qualified. Although they have
interesting ideas, their topics often fail to fit into the scope and
tone of the publication.
One query I recently received read, in its entirety: Id like to write
for the next issue, so send me the deadline. This is less a query
letter than a demand, leaving me with no idea who the potential
author is, what she plans to write about, or why I should publish
her work. Another aspiring author sent, in its entirety, a 20-page
footnoted academic article. My publication guidelines call for
800-1,000-word conversational articles around thematic issues.
Neither of these approaches made a positive impression.
Before writing your query letter, take time to look at a publication,
any back issues or articles it makes available, and its contributor
guidelines. Think about the who, what, when, where, why, and
how series of questions above, and have your answers
formulated your letter will then pretty much write itself! Query
letters in many ways parallel the cover letters you write when
seeking employment; you show how you match a publication
outlets needs, just as you would show how you match an
employers needs. If sending a paper query, keep it to one page,
and keep e-mailed queries similarly brief; practise selling
yourself and your work concisely and effectively.
Effective cover letters and abstracts
When you publish in the peer-reviewed literature, you will instead
of a query often be asked to submit a finished piece of work with
a cover letter and/or abstract that summarizes its content and
goals. Generally, abstracts run to 100-250 words (this will be
spelled out in the journal guidelines). An abstract briefly
summarizes the purpose of your paper, your methodology, your
argument, and your conclusion(s). Here again, the practice you
went through in learning to succinctly describe your topic to
colleagues will come in handy.
In your cover letter, describe your article briefly, and supply any
important information. Are you submitting it for a particular
section of the journal, a special issue, or an upcoming thematic
issue? For a multi-authored work, identify one contact author and
include full contact information; this person will be responsible
for any communications with the editor. If the publishers
guidelines ask for specific verbiage to be included in the cover
letter (for example, assigning copyright to the journal), be sure to
do so and be sure you know to what you are agreeing.
Effective book proposals
The content and format of your book proposal will vary,
depending on the guidelines of your target publisher. Most
supply detailed proposal outlines online; be sure to follow a
given publishers format and style when submitting yours. Each,though, asks for similar basic elements. These often include
items such as: a description of the proposed work (more
practice in succinctly summarizing your topic!), an annotated
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table of contents, a biographical statement, a sample chapter
(and/or other writing samples), a description of the potential
market, a list of competing works, and delivery details.
Potential authors are often intimidated by the length of a book
proposal and the amount of work required with no guarantee of
success. It may help, though, to look at a proposal as merely a
lengthier version of a query letter, covering the same who, what,
when, where, why, and how type of questions. Its greater length
is appropriate, given the greater commitment you and a
publisher are making to each other in working together on a
book-length project.
Working on a proposal, further, can help you clarify and organize
your own thoughts about your potential book. The process of
creating the table of contents and describing the work will help
you determine whether you really do have a book-length idea, or
whether your topic might be better off as an article.
Effective selling
As in any other aspect of publishing, you improve your odds of
success by giving editors what they are looking for and
remaining professional in all your communications. This is
especially important in an initial communication, such as a query,
cover letter, or book proposal these offer your best chance at
making a good first impression. Put the same thought into these
documents as into your other writing; if an editor sees that you
can create an effective letter or proposal, she will be more likely
to take a chance on your longer work.
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Library literature and the gift economy
So, what makes writing for the library literature different? Our
common bond as members of the profession in itself gives us
reason to participate. We all give back to the profession in
different ways some of us get passionately involved in
associations, others lobby for libraries and librarians, and some
of us write for the library literature. Librarianship as a field is built
on the contributions and conversations of its members.
Not enough for you? Well, lets try enlightened self-interest!
More than one observer has remarked on the natural affinities
between librarianship and the open source software movement,
arguing for the increased use of open source in library
applications. We can go further, and think about participation in
the library profession as in some ways analogous to participation
in the creation of open source software.
Individual contributors to open source software forgo monetary
profit, but find other less tangible benefits in participating in the
open source community. As a Feb. 3, 2005 Economistarticle on
the economics of sharing puts it: In the context of open
source, much has been written about why people would share
technical talent, giving away something that they also sell by
holding a job in the information-technology industry. The reason
often seems to be that writing open-source software increases
the authors prestige among their peers or gains them
experience that might help them in the job market, not to mention
that they also find it fun. (www.economist.com/finance/display
Story.cfm?story_id=3623762)
Writing for publication in the library literature a major way of
participating in the library community offers similar advantages
in terms of prestige, experience, and even fun! Should you
always write for free? Of course not, but dont let monetarycompensation be an automatic deal-breaker. Writing for the
literature offers the following benefits:
Name recognition. If you think about the whos who of
librarianship, most of the big names in the field are big names
at least partially because of their publication record. While we
are a fairly small field, we are also fragmented and spread out,
and many more people will get to know you through your
writing than will necessarily meet you in person.
Rsum fodder. Academic librarians obviously realize the
importance of listing publications on their CVs, as well as the
part research and publication play in the tenure and promotion
process. Any librarian, though, benefits from the opportunity to
include a Publications section on her rsum, showing her
professional involvement and demonstrating that she has
thoughts on the issues of the day.
Reputation building. Beyond simple name recognition, your
writing on a given subject gives you the chance to become
known as an expert on that subject. As your reputation grows,
so, too, do related opportunities you may be asked to write,
present, or opine further on your topic of choice; you may have
the chance to build connections with others who are expert in
the field.
Advancing the literature. Writing for the library literature
provides the opportunity to contribute to something bigger
than any one person. While your article or blog entry or book
or review is in itself a minuscule part of the whole, each
contribution interacts as part of the ongoing conversation that
builds our professional foundations and advances the field.
Overall, the more you write for the profession, the more
opportunities will come your way and the more you will feel a part
of the larger whole.
You will note also that most of these opportunities are maximized
when access to your work is also maximized. Ive talked before
about the advantages of publishing online, especially in free,open-access venues. The library literature of course contains a
healthy mix of publication outlets, both free and fee but take
accessibility into account, along with other considerations, when
choosing an outlet for your work.
Cases to study
Still skeptical?
Case #1: A regular, unpaid book reviewer for Library Journal is
invited to apply to write a monthly topical review column, on
the strength of her reviews and writing on similar topics. She
now writes a paid column each month.
Case #2: An enthusiastic blogger is contacted by an editor ata library-related publishing company, and now is under
contract to write a book that builds on some of the information
and ideas he previously blogged.
Case #3: An author of a reference work is contacted by a
magazine editor and asked to contribute a feature article on a
similar topic.
Case #4: Another authors book is reviewed favorably in the
literature. The review attracts the notice of a conference
organizing committee, and she is invited to fly in and do a
conference workshop on the topic.
Just as in your job hunt, your name recognition, skill-building
exercises, and enthusiasm can lead to a successful writing
career. Putting your words out there is another way of beginning
to build a network; people get to know you by what you have to
say. So join on in, showing that you are someone worth knowing!
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What if? Overcoming writers remorse
Writers remorse: all writers have had it. As soon as we send in
an article, we have a flash of inspiration about the perfect hook
we could have used to snare readers attention. As soon as a
book is on its way to the printer, we run across the perfect source
to shore up its weakest spot. As soon as we turn in a manuscript,
we have an epiphany about the perfect section we could have
included had we only thought of it earlier. As soon as we see
the final version in print, we cringe at an unfortunate word choicehere, an incomplete train of thought there.
Its natural to second-guess ourselves; writers remorse being
merely one manifestation. The fact that we can think, remember,
and envision alternative scenarios is part of what makes us
human. Weve all thought of the perfect comeback to a days-old
insult, dreamed about another path we could have taken and
where we could be now. Writers remorse, though, hits at the
center of our insecurities about putting our work more than that,
our words out there for others to see. In order to overcome our
insecurities and go on as writers, we need to gain some
perspective on what part of this is really under our control.
Purchasing perspective
Try this exercise: Pick a librarian author whose work you admire,
one who has been writing for at least ten years. Read a recent
piece or two, taking note of topic, writing style, voice, and where
the work appears. Now, go back three to five years and pick
another couple of pieces. Look at the same aspects. Lastly, go
back another three to five years. Would you know this was the
same writer? How have her approach, her topics, her publication
outlets changed over time? Has her distinct voice emerged over
time, or was it present from the outset?
Next, pick someone who has been writing for the past 20 years.
Look at his recent work, then go back ten years, 15, and 20. Howdo you see his work evolving over the years?
Now, just for fun, pick someone who has just started writing
recently. Make the same notes about her work. How do you
envision her topics, style, voice, and choice of outlets changing
over the next five years? The next ten? Keep an eye out for her
writing and see whether she matches your expectations over
time.
Buying time
Now that we are done dissecting others, lets get back to you
and your writing. The above heavy-handed exercise should, if
nothing else, show that peoples writing naturally changes over
time. If you are just starting out, why compare yourself with
someone who has been writing for years? Everything you write,
everything you work on, helps create your own unique voice and
style, helps hone your writing muscles so that your voice can
shine through. A simple shift in perception helps move early
writing from the category of mistake to that of building-block
as does the recognition that we are generally our own harshest
critics.
The best way to side-step writers remorse, though, is always to
have that next project in mind. When we are busy writing,researching, or thinking about our next article, we have less time
to wallow in couldve, wouldve, shouldve from the last one.
Yes, some of us only have one article, one book, or one idea in
us; in others, inspiration strikes but rarely. If, however, you have
the ambition to call yourself a writer, if you have the need to
publish widely for tenure or promotion purposes, if you have a
flood of ideas waiting to take shape, you have the perfect
antidote. Best of all, your work on that next project, that next
article, hones your writing that much more as your writing
improves and your unique style takes shape, bouts of writers
remorse will become fewer and further between.
Remorse for the rest of us
All of us, no matter the volume or frequency of our writing, can
battle writers remorse preemptively. Regardless of how long you
have been writing or how often your work appears, you are more
likely to second-guess your own work when you know you have
failed to put in your best effort. Much of the time, our remorse
stems from the guilty knowledge that we could have should
have done better.
If you wait till the last minute and dash something off for a waiting
editor, you are sure to regret it in the morning. If you get tired of
looking at a given piece and send in an unfortunately rough draft,
it will fail to miraculously polish itself up in transit. While not a
sure-fire cure, avoiding sure-fire paths to remorse increases ourodds of being able to take pride in our work.
A while back, I read a business book whose main point was (in
so many words): Sell like hell, do the work, take the money. In
writing, as in business, it can be a lot more fun to sell (to get
others excited about our fabulous ideas) and to take the money
(or rsum fodder or recognition) than to spend time on the nitty-
gritty details of writing. Neglecting this middle bit, though, pretty
much obviates the whole point; there is only so much selling we
can do before our failure to really do the work leaves the rest right
out.
Writing is indeed work! Again, as in business, the key to
satisfaction is to find the work that is personally rewarding,
interesting, and challenging, to do it well, and to expend your
energy where it is important and needed.
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The worlds leading publisher of management research
www.emeraldinsight.com
Backfiles
Online access to over 100 years of management research
120 journals from the 1800s to the present day
60,000 articles in key management disciplines
http://ww2.emeraldinsight.com/backfiles
The farther backward youcan look, the farther forward
you are likely to seeWinston Churchill
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Emerald LIS journals overview
Aslib Proceedings: New Information
Perspectives: an interdisciplinary journal in the
field of information studies with content and
coverage to match the rapidly changing
discipline profile. The journal brings currency,
authority and accessibility to the reporting of
current research, issues and debates in the
broad area of information work. It provides an ideal platform for
the dissemination of new and challenging research and ideas in
this field.
The Bottom Line provides librarians, library
trustees and others concerned with library
management, with current information related
to the financial aspects of library operations.
The journal focuses on cost measurement and
containment, fundraising, development, fiscal
policies and procedures, and the financial
implications of technological change. It provides current,
practical information that can be applied in all types of libraries.
Campus-Wide Information Systems publishes
cutting-edge research and case studies relatingto administrative, academic and library
computing, as well as other educational
technologies. The journal analyses the latest
theories, applications and services relating to
planning, developing, managing, using and
evaluating information technologies in higher education.
Collection Building publishes well-researched
and authoritative information on collection
maintenance and development, from the
practical to the theoretical. It provides practical
information on resource sharing, maximisingrestricted budgets and the implications of
change, particularly in the area of information
technology. The journal aims to maintain a balance between
theory and practice and help librarians to improve their service to
users.
The Electronic Library is devoted to the
applications and implications of new
technology, automation, user interfaces,
networks and the web on libraries, information
centres and museums world-wide. The journal
also covers the development of software and
hardware for such applications. It serves as a
medium for reporting research results, descriptions, news,
reviews and information exchange.
Interlending & Document Supply covers a
wide range of activities relating to document
provision and supply, from traditional
approaches to the use of advanced
technologies, both within and between
countries world-wide. It aims to provide well-
researched and authoritative information for
senior managers in library and information services, and
librarians in academic, public and special libraries.
Journal of Documentation is a leadingresearch journal in the field and has the unique
perspective of focusing on theories, concepts,
models, frameworks and philosophies in the
information sciences. It aims to provide a forum
for the dissemination of scholarly articles,
research reports and critical reviews in the
information sciences. It provides a link between
research and scholarship and reflective professional practice, so
that both are informed and enhanced.
Library Hi Tech is dedicated to substantive
coverage of computing and technology for thelibrary community world-wide. It is international
in scope, and defines technology in the
broadest possible terms to include the full
range of tools librarians a